Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will pick up on one of the points made by Deputy Ó Snodaigh regarding the make-up of the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission. It is a significant issue, as the body is made up of Fine Gael, the Labour Party and Fianna Fáil, with Sinn Féin, the Technical Group and other Independents excluded. There may be a different set of priorities as a result. For example, in considering the Oireachtas committees, I believe there is a need to beef up the secretariat so it could do more meaningful work. That is an example of how there is not really an opportunity for us to make any kind of input into the process.

The Minister might recall the issue I have continuously raised regarding the Technical Group and the changing nature of its mandate. If opinion polls are to be believed, although we do not know, there could be a very different make-up to the Dáil next time but what has happened does not reflect that. I spent a long time going back and forth to the Minister's office trying to achieve some changes to a particular piece of legislation so a group recognised in Standing Orders, the Technical Group, could get a small number of staff resources to run the group. For example, the group is comparable in size to Fianna Fáil in the Dáil, which has in the order of 20 staff provided for the running of parliamentary activities. The Technical Group does not get anyone.

The Minister was quite helpful to me in writing a letter with which I went to the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission. That stated it was entirely within the power of the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission to change or revise the regulations currently in place, within budgetary constraints placed upon it. It indicated that although the Technical Group is not a party and, therefore, cannot be allocated resources as if it was, the commission may, if it sees fit, make new regulations to allow for the specific provision of additional facilities to individual members or parties to comprise the Technical Group.

With a group of 17 or 18 Members, some managing is required, even to organise somebody to answer the phone or e-mails and ensure that people are allocated to committees, etc. This cannot be done otherwise. The Technical Group made an arrangement in which it became the private employer of two people, so this could be achieved. However, this should have been unnecessary as such a resource should have been provided. It will not be provided within this Dáil. It is absolutely wrong that a different approach is taken because of the mandate despite the fact that the citizen is sovereign and has the choice in sending people to this House. It is absolutely outrageous that the Technical Group can be so underprovided for. The Minister's helpful letter was sent to me on 1 April 2014 and I felt I was made a fool of in the run-around I got on this issue. The feedback from the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission, which required much effort to get, was that the only way in which we could be provided with resources was if I, as the Technical Group Whip, was disabled. That is the kind of nonsensical approach that must be changed if we are to respect the mandate and its make-up now and in future.

I do not have a great deal of insight into how the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission works or where its priorities lie. Two thirds of the Opposition do not have input into it, which is a glaring democratic gap, given how essential are the facilities. It may well be that if there were contrarian views on the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission, the money or resources would be allocated in an entirely different way. For example, there might be a much more powerful committee system if there were resources to do something that is now impossible because of the generous but limited resources available.

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